H.S. Girls Track: Wildcats take charge of Large

Wednesday

Apr 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMApr 30, 2008 at 10:53 AM

EAST LYME — Amy Sinko had just finished her sprint down the final 100 meters of the 4x400-meter relay Tuesday when Norwich Free Academy girls track and field coach Kara Kochanski directed her team toward the 50-yard line of the East Lyme infield.

MATT STOUT

EAST LYME — Amy Sinko had just finished her sprint down the final 100 meters of the 4x400-meter relay Tuesday when Norwich Free Academy girls track and field coach Kara Kochanski directed her team toward the 50-yard line of the East Lyme infield.

No need. With most of the Wildcats already forming a circle at midfield, it was clear they have this celebration down pat.

NFA won 13 of 18 events and dominated in the field events to cruise, 96-54, over defending Eastern Connecticut Conference champion East Lyme. In turn, it captured sole possession of first place in the ECC Large while continuing one of the oddest patterns in the conference.

“Since I’ve been coaching (in 2003), they’ve won on our track and we’ve won their track,” Kochanski said of the teams’ regular-season meetings. “And we seem to win on the even years and they seem to win on the odd years.

“Isn’t it weird?”

Surely. But how NFA (7-0, 4-0 ECC Large) did it was not surprising.

The ever-versatile Kim Johnson led a charge in the field, taking first in the high jump (5 feet, 0 inches), pole vault (10-09) and shot put (36-4), and classmate Lauren LePage was thrice a winner, taking the 200-meter (27.0 seconds) and 100-meter runs (12.8) and the triple jump.
Throw in wins by Ashley Chenette (javelin), Melody Pothier (discus) and Miranda Wallace (long jump), plus a slew of second- and third-place finishes, and NFA more than made up for a 40-33 deficit on the track.

“They were extremely strong in the field events, and I knew that they would be,” said East Lyme coach Carl Reichard, who got multiple wins from Leah Clement in the 800m and 400m, but “rolled the dice” by running her with little rest in the 200m, where she finished third. The move also forced the star junior out of the 4x400m relay, another NFA victory.

“I’m not saying we would have won it if she ran, I don’t know what would have happened,” Reichard continued. “But that was a little bit of a risk. It was late in the meet and we were behind, and I tried to make something happen.”

Instead, it ended up as it seemingly always does between these two long-time rivals — the visitor thriving on foreign turf. Why, no ones knows for sure. Reichard theorized about the bonding the travel forms. As the road team, NFA also gets out of track management duties.

NFA, though, doesn’t need any extra motivation when it comes to East Lyme (4-1, 2-1). The two have combined to win the last six conference crowns, the Vikings in 2007, ’05 and ’02, and NFA in ’06, ’04 and ’03.

“This is the meet of the season that everybody looks for, this is the one that counts the most,” LePage said. “And I always feel at away meets, you’re proving yourself to everybody that is here watching from the other school, so it’s definitely an incentive.”

Johnson agrees. The junior has been nursing several injuries the last few months ranging from torn ligaments in her left ankle to bruised ribs to “something weird” in her right ankle, which together will force her to rest the next two weeks before the all-important postseason meets.

But she wasn’t going to miss this one.

“Oh gosh no,” she said. “This is the meet I look forward to every year.”

The Wildcats couldn’t have won it without her.
“Kim, we can put her in anything and I think she can score a point anywhere on the track,” said Kochanski, who called the victory a “stepping stone.”

“Now we can look at the ECCs as our next big championship,” she continued. “It gives us the confidence to come in and say hopefully we can dominate the ECC championship. But it’s going to be tough. It’s always a competition between us (and East Lyme).”

Reach Matt Stout at 425-4250 or mstout@norwichbulletin.com

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.